thinking of revamping my workout/ suppliments..... suggestions

mustangmike6996

mustangmike6996

Club Member
goal: more muscle mass/bulk less body fat im in the USMC and need to remain within body fat standards

currently i hit the gym 5-6 days a week (for weights and strength training) and PT with my workcenter 3 days a week (for endurance)
-a normal gym workout consists of two muscle groups and some sort of core or minor workout to be used in supersets
4 sets of 10ish reps. sometimes i will add a 5th set of 15-20 reps lighter weight for a burnout. example: bench 225 lbsx10/ 245x8/ 245x8/ 275x6 /155x 15or 20
-normal workcenter PT consists of either 1-5 mile runs/ circuit course/obstacle course/ team PT / High intensity interval training
-i use BSN NO-Xplode (1.5-2 scoops) preworkout Optimum nutrition whey protein (40 grams) post workout shake and BSN Cellmass (1 scoop) postworkout
- i am 25, 5'7" 185-190 lbs pretty trim/solid stocky build
- my diet is fairly decent, nothing crazy or bad, very balanced. high in good protein from chicken and fish. about 3000 calories a day, as i am trying to not become fat. dont eat before bed. drink plenty of water. stay away from fatty/ fried foods.

i have taken different pre and post workout sups. Jacked 3d/ VPX NO-shotgun different brand proteins and a testosterone booster.

ive hit a pretty long plateau with adding mass although my strength still increases size will not. any suggestions? has anyone tried growth hormone sups? i see USP labs, universal nutrition and others make pills and VPX makes a liquid.

any input? please and thanks.
 
Damn, I would say you are doing more now than 90% on this forum! Hoping some of the elite in the last 10% chime in.

Me, I got nuthin except to carry on.
 
mustangmike6996 said:
goal: more muscle mass/bulk less body fat im in the USMC and need to remain within body fat standards

currently i hit the gym 5-6 days a week (for weights and strength training) and PT with my workcenter 3 days a week (for endurance)
-a normal gym workout consists of two muscle groups and some sort of core or minor workout to be used in supersets
4 sets of 10ish reps. sometimes i will add a 5th set of 15-20 reps lighter weight for a burnout. example: bench 225 lbsx10/ 245x8/ 245x8/ 275x6 /155x 15or 20
-normal workcenter PT consists of either 1-5 mile runs/ circuit course/obstacle course/ team PT / High intensity interval training
-i use BSN NO-Xplode (1.5-2 scoops) preworkout Optimum nutrition whey protein (40 grams) post workout shake and BSN Cellmass (1 scoop) postworkout
- i am 25, 5'7" 185-190 lbs pretty trim/solid stocky build
- my diet is fairly decent, nothing crazy or bad, very balanced. high in good protein from chicken and fish. about 3000 calories a day, as i am trying to not become fat. dont eat before bed. drink plenty of water. stay away from fatty/ fried foods.

i have taken different pre and post workout sups. Jacked 3d/ VPX NO-shotgun different brand proteins and a testosterone booster.

ive hit a pretty long plateau with adding mass although my strength still increases size will not. any suggestions? has anyone tried growth hormone sups? i see USP labs, universal nutrition and others make pills and VPX makes a liquid.

any input? please and thanks.
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Up your calories slightly with clean food! Start by upping somewhere around 300 calories/day, and monitor your body weight/fat through use of scales, mirrors, bmi tests etc.

If you've plateaued your weight/mass gain, at 3000 calories you've probably found your current k-cal maintenance level. At the end of the day, it comes down to calories in versus calories out!
 
Get away from the "10ish" rep range for a while. Change it up a bit. Volume training is your friend when used in the correct amounts...meaning do not do it month after month on the same body parts.

For instance: instead of your bench workout the way it is, change it to 135 x 25, 185 x 20, 225 x 15, 245 x ?, 275 x ? do this for 3 to 4 weeks, increasing the reps on each set by at least 1...If 1 is all you can increase then so be it. It may not happen on every set, but try to on at least 1. Small gains will yield huge results down the road. Once you have completed this 3 or 4 weeks of volume, go back to a 6 to 10 rep target range for a few weeks. then try the volume again. Try not to hit too many body parts during the same training cycle with volume. The key is to use a weight that will allow you to get 30 reps or so on your first warm-up set. Then go from there. Also, this plays a huge role in your leg workouts. An example of 1 of my legs workouts is as follows (this for quads only, hams are a seperate day):

Squats: 135 x 35, 225 x 20 - 25, 315 x 15 - 18, 365 x 12 - 15, 405 x 8 - 12, (this is enough to get me on the brink of barfing)
presses: 360 x 40, 450 x 35, 540 x 30, 630 x 25, 720 x 15-18, 810 x 8? (walking is rough at this point)
weighted lunges super-setted with extensions: do these to failure 4 sets of each is more than enough.

Doing this with deadlifts is nearly impossible as your lower back fails so quickly that you can't get to the higher weights and do them safely and correct.

I could keep going for hours on this stuff. Just remember that if your legs and core are strong, the rest of your body will follow.
 
I'd wait for LittleMags to chime in, but I always heard that if you are in shape and have a good build and you want more size, like you said, then picking a weight where you can only rep about 6 times is the way to go.

Just a question, but at 5'7" and 185-190lbs, why do you want so much more size? At that height you are prolly already pretty bulky and big. Why not go for sheer strength? Why are a lot of guys caught up on being so big?
 
robvas said:
A lot of shorter guys do it to compensate for being short.
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I can understand that, but anything over 185-190 would look kinda silly, no offense to the OP. At 5'7" how much more would you wanna weigh? I'd think being like 205 210 might slow him down. Being in the USMC, wouldn't you still wanna move quickly?
 
mustangmike6996 said:
goal: more muscle mass/bulk less body fat im in the USMC and need to remain within body fat standards

currently i hit the gym 5-6 days a week (for weights and strength training) and PT with my workcenter 3 days a week (for endurance)
-a normal gym workout consists of two muscle groups and some sort of core or minor workout to be used in supersets
4 sets of 10ish reps. sometimes i will add a 5th set of 15-20 reps lighter weight for a burnout. example: bench 225 lbsx10/ 245x8/ 245x8/ 275x6 /155x 15or 20
-normal workcenter PT consists of either 1-5 mile runs/ circuit course/obstacle course/ team PT / High intensity interval training
-i use BSN NO-Xplode (1.5-2 scoops) preworkout Optimum nutrition whey protein (40 grams) post workout shake and BSN Cellmass (1 scoop) postworkout
- i am 25, 5'7" 185-190 lbs pretty trim/solid stocky build
- my diet is fairly decent, nothing crazy or bad, very balanced. high in good protein from chicken and fish. about 3000 calories a day, as i am trying to not become fat. dont eat before bed. drink plenty of water. stay away from fatty/ fried foods.

i have taken different pre and post workout sups. Jacked 3d/ VPX NO-shotgun different brand proteins and a testosterone booster.

ive hit a pretty long plateau with adding mass although my strength still increases size will not. any suggestions? has anyone tried growth hormone sups? i see USP labs, universal nutrition and others make pills and VPX makes a liquid.

any input? please and thanks.
Click to expand...

The problem isn't in your supplements, its in your diet and training.

10 reps is too many, and burn outs are a terrible idea. Lifting to the point of "failure" is a thing of the past because it takes so much longer for your muscles to recover and rebuild.

The only way to grow is to eat, up your calories to 4-5k with clean food. Drop your reps down, do a warm up set of LIGHT weight for 10-12 reps. Then do 3 sets of 6-7 reps with heavy weight, but do NOT "fail" on the last reps. On your third set your last rep should be right before failure, as in if you did one more, you could not do it.


I know you seem like you want to stay semi-lean because your in the USMC, well you have to grow first and then cut down after. If you train to cut now, you will get leaner but most likely lose weight. You will not get fat if you increase your calories, you just have to eat right.


I would suggest reading on bodybuilding.com, a 5x4 workout may get you some results too. (5 sets, 4 reps, heavy). The last place I would look for workout advice would probably be this forum unless I'm talking to littlemags. :lol: You can try sending him a PM, hes answered a few of my questions in the past. Good luck.
 
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thanks for all of the suggestions. ive been a solid 205 before but wasnt as lean as i wanted to be but still pretty fast. even being 190 i can still run my PFT 3-mile in 20:15 min. and my 880 sprint is 2:45 min.

as far as bulking up, im pretty barrel chested so even when im not trying to lean out i still look bulky. earlier this year i was on a 5x5 workout lifting very heavy/ correctly, i bulked up a bit but plateaued again. i feel much more worked with a burnout set. when i work myself til i feel completely spent/dead i recover pretty quick, the only thing that stays sore for the next day are calves and quads normally.
 
mustangmike6996 said:
thanks for all of the suggestions. ive been a solid 205 before but wasnt as lean as i wanted to be but still pretty fast. even being 190 i can still run my PFT 3-mile in 20:15 min. and my 880 sprint is 2:45 min.

as far as bulking up, im pretty barrel chested so even when im not trying to lean out i still look bulky. earlier this year i was on a 5x5 workout lifting very heavy/ correctly, i bulked up a bit but plateaued again. i feel much more worked with a burnout set. when i work myself til i feel completely spent/dead i recover pretty quick, the only thing that stays sore for the next day are calves and quads normally.
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Quads stay sore for a few days on me too. I went thru P90X and the Legs and Back day (Friday) kept me sore til Monday, it was hard to do Plyo on Tuesday still for the first few weeks, then I finally built up some tolerance and could get thru them all the time.
 
SVT32VDOHC said:
Quads stay sore for a few days on me too. I went thru P90X and the Legs and Back day (Friday) kept me sore til Monday, it was hard to do Plyo on Tuesday still for the first few weeks, then I finally built up some tolerance and could get thru them all the time.
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P90x works and works even better if you have a good diet. My friends made fun of me when I did it cause it wasn't going to the gym. But I had faster and better results in half the time with out all the bull shit. just do the workout every day and really push yourself and you won't be disappointed.

And yoga holy shit that is so hard! It makes every muscle in your body explode! It is kinda boring but after you feel very limber from the stretching it requires.
 
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05cesrt said:
P90x works and works even better if you have a good diet. My friends made fun of me when I did it cause it wasn't going to the gym. But I had faster and better results in half the time with out all the bull shit. just do the workout every day and really push yourself and you won't be disappointed.

And yoga holy shit that is so hard! It makes every muscle in your body explode! It is kinda boring but after you feel very limber from the stretching it requires.
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Yeahhh, I would argue the "faster and better results in half the time" for myself all day. Lol
 
05cesrt said:
P90x works and works even better if you have a good diet. My friends made fun of me when I did it cause it wasn't going to the gym. But I had faster and better results in half the time with out all the bull shit. just do the workout every day and really push yourself and you won't be disappointed.

And yoga holy shit that is so hard! It makes every muscle in your body explode! It is kinda boring but after you feel very limber from the stretching it requires.
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Oh yeah, I did the best I could with my diet during the 90 days. I brought it as hard as I could and RARELY missed a day. I have to agree that I got better results than people I know who go to the gym. If you work hard on P90X you'll see awesome results. P90X will make you a better all around athlete than going to the gym because it's constantly changing and targets you're whole body.

mustangmike6996 said:
i like P90x. have you ever tried Insanity? Its a very good workout as well.
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Insanity is tough. I have it, bought haven't tried it. I did the fit test and even that is a workout in itself. :lol:

PaxNovi 5.0 said:
Yeahhh, I would argue the "faster and better results in half the time" for myself all day. Lol
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Why do you say that? What's your arguement?

soap said:
I thought Insanity was a good workout. However it is not going to build mass, just trim you down. The Max Cardio workout was killer.

--Joe
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Right on. Whatever fat P90X didn't get rid of, Insanity will rid the rest of it. I haven't tried it, I did the fit test and just watched a couple of the DVD's in the set and they look intense. I was pretty in shape when I started P90X, weighing in at 198lbs. Got down to 187-189ish, then ate more and worked even harder the last 30 days and got back up to 194lbs.

I haven't done it since the end of May/Early June cause of the wedding/honeymoon but I've maintained my weight still just by eating right. I mean, I've done it like once a week, just picked a DVD and did it. Muscle mass has dropped slightly, but I still feel/look good.
 
Paxnovi hates p90 cause it works! Lol but if he had a week 8 photo to compare with my week 8 photo on p90 then he might have a argument. And for not eating right an drinking lots of beer it worked great for me.

Pax is more into heavy lifting and getting big. I am not, I don't like the wwe look lol. I give it up to pax tho, the dedication an sacrifices he has made to get were he is it took a lot of hard work an perseverance. And no I did not try insanity idk just didn't seem like my thing
 
05cesrt said:
Paxnovi hates p90 cause it works! Lol but if he had a week 8 photo to compare with my week 8 photo on p90 then he might have a argument. And for not eating right an drinking lots of beer it worked great for me.

Pax is more into heavy lifting and getting big. I am not, I don't like the wwe look lol. I give it up to pax tho, the dedication an sacrifices he has made to get were he is it took a lot of hard work an perseverance. And no I did not try insanity idk just didn't seem like my thing
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lol...I don't know him, so I was just asking. It worked for me, like I said. Diet was mainly, Chicken everyday, red meat once or twice a week (lean cuts), lots of veggies, red potatoes, milk, lots of water, Cheerios, Oatmeal ect....

Tony says stay away from all alcohol, which was hard. I'd still do my couple beers during bowling night and maybe 5-6 on a weekend, but hey, nobody's perfect.

Tony also says stay away from dairy, like cheese, milk, eggs ect. Tony eats only tofu. He doesn't even eat meat. To me, that's weird, I think that's personal preference, but he insists that all that stuff is bad for you.
 
I hate p90 too....man...do I hate it. I have tried it just hate it...did I say I hate it?? lol...
no really though...it works and my fat ass cant keep up with that stuff. Iam sitting at 5'5" (midget status) and floating around 220-223. BUT I compete nationally so my goal is both being lean and BIG...and I lose to much muscle on p90x...i did it during rehab for my quad after I tore it...I got lean for sure!
IF your goal is LEAN low bodyfat...hit that program. IF your goal is lean and BIG stick with tradional training. Iam currently training with John Meadows and doing Mountain Dog training....
love that training...
 
BTW: you will NEVER see me eat any tofu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tofu meals produced a significant increase in the level of sex-hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), a liver-produced protein that effectively binds testosterone in the blood, making it inactive. tofu is known to interfere with testosterone release dropping total free test up to 35-40% after a meal!!!!!!
 
LITTLEMAGS said:
BTW: you will NEVER see me eat any tofu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tofu meals produced a significant increase in the level of sex-hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), a liver-produced protein that effectively binds testosterone in the blood, making it inactive. tofu is known to interfere with testosterone release dropping total free test up to 35-40% after a meal!!!!!!
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So are you saying that Tony is a sex addict freak?? :lol: I've never even seen tofu, nor would I wanna try it. I don't like weird foods like Thai, Tofu, veggie burgers, any of that crap. I just eat normal stuff as I said above.

Tony has a weird diet, but at 53 years old, he's a superfreak. There are vids on You Tube of him working out on Santa Monica beach. He climbs up a rope with no feet, then reverses at the top and goes down with just his hands (upside down). His work on the gymnist rings is pretty sick too. I can only hope to do half or even a quarter of what he can do when I'm 53. :lol:
 
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